Contents:

Before Playing

Carefully remove all plastic parts from the frames.
If necessary use scissors to help. Smooth sharp edges.

Important: Be careful that the bases of the swimmer
figures are quite even. They should stand up on their
own. Assemble the central city and the ships as shown
in figures 1 and 2.

Preparing to Play

Put the city in the center of the board.

Put all other island tiles on the board.
Don't look at the symbols on the bottoms.
Separate the tiles. Put the fortress tiles
around the castle. Then the land tiles and
then the rock tiles. See fig. 3.

If only two players are playing, put two
ships on the board as shown in fig. 4.
If more than two players are playing,
4 [I think. --Jeff] ships begin in play. See Fig. 5.

Each player picks a color and takes the
figures of that color. All other pieces
are left in the box until needed.

Goal of the Game

Each player tries to rescue his guys from the
sinking island. Goals are the safe islands in
the corners of the board. The game ends if the
last live guy gets ashore; the player with the
most saved wins.

The Play

The youngest player goes first. Each player in
turn puts one figure on the island. Each tile
can hold up to three guys. Play passes to the
left. Keep going until each player has all 12
guys on the board. Info: for experienced players,
see strategy tips on page 6.

In each turn, each player does these three things:

Moves his guys and/or ships.

Removes an island tile.

Rolls the die in order to move the monsters.

Phase 1

Guys and/or Ships move

You may move any number of ships or your guys
up to a total of three spaces.

Example:
It's your turn, so you move one of your guys
two spaces and a ship one space. See Fig. 6.

See the section on "ship movement" for further
rules on moving ships.

Phase 2

Part of the Island sinks

After the phasing player takes his three moves,
he picks an island tile to sink. The island
sinks in this order: first all the rock sections
must be removed, then the land sections. After
the land sections, then the fortress tiles.
The only exception: if you uncover a vortex
see below. If you sink a tile, pick it up and
turn it over and show all the players the symbol
on the bottom. If a Kraken, Sea Monster, Dolphin,
Shark or Ship symbol is there, place the appropriate
item on the board in the space where the tile was
removed.

If you remove a tile on which guys are standing,
place them in the water in adjacent water spaces.
They become swimmers. You may place swimmers only
on empty spaces if possible. Tip: don't remove
tiles with your men on them.

Vortex

If you turn over a tile with a vortex symbol on it,
all guys, sea monsters, sharks, Kraken, dolphins,
and ships (empty or filled) as well as any island
tiles on the neighboring six spaces are destroyed
and removed from play immediately. See Fig. 7.

If it happens that no more tiles can sink, the
phasing player continues with Phase 3, skipping
Phase 2.

Phase 3

Dice
The phasing player throws both dice in order
to move the sea creatures on the board. One
die shows the creature to be moved and the other
how far (1, 2, or 3 spaces) it may move or
whether it may "dive." (See diving on page 5.)
If there is no creature of that type on the
board, the player's turn ends.

1. Swimming guys

Guys swim very badly, but they are somewhat worried
about being eaten. Guys can become swimmers:

by diving from an island tile to an adjacent sea space

by being on a ship that sinks

falling into the water from a sinking island tile.

Swimmers may never return to land. Swimmers may
move only one space per turn. They can, however,
board a ship, if they are on the same space at
the beginning of a turn. [Not sure about this
particular rule, but that's how it was in the
old version, I think. --Jeff] Climbing on board counts
as one of a player's three moves. The ship can
be moved after the swimmer climbs on board if the
player still has moves left.

2. Sharks

If a shark moves to a sea space with swimmers,
they are devoured by the shark. A shark may
be in the same space as a ship, but it cannot
attack it or its contents.

3. Kraken

If a Kraken moves to a space with a manned
ship, the ship is sunk (removed from play)
and the crew becomes swimmers. The Kraken
stays in the space with the swimmers, but
does not harm them. If a shark happens to
be in the space, however, the swimmers are
lunch. A Kraken cannot attack an unmanned
ship.

4. Sea Monsters

Sea Monsters are particularly nasty. They
eat any ships (manned or unmanned) and
swimmers in any space they enter.

5. Dolphins

They are friends, as you can see by
their smiling faces! If a dolphin
moves to a sea space with a swimmer (or
a swimmer to a dolphin) the swimmer is
protected against any attack.

If a space contains a swimmer, a dolphin,
and a shark or sea monster, and the dolphin
is moved away from the space, the swimmer
gets eaten immediately. Dolphins may be
in the same space as ships.

A dolphin/swimmer combination may move together
one space a turn during the movement phase
(Phase 1). During Phase 3, only the dolphin
may move.

Important: Sea creatures may move onto any
spaces including those with other figures.
Exception: they may not move on land. No
more than one sea creature may move on the
same turn.

Diving

If a player rolls the dive symbol, he may
move the rolled creature to any sea space
he chooses. Depending on the situation,
it can be better to harm other player or
help oneself.

Ship Movement

Ships may not move into sea spaces if there's
already another ship, a Kraken, or a sea monster
there. A ship can be in a space with a shark or
a dolphin.

Each ship has three spaces for guys. A player
may put one of his guys on a ship if the ship
is directly beside an island tile with the guy
and a space on the ship is empty. Guys can
move from ship to ship if they happen to be
in neighboring spaces. Any player may
move an unmanned ship. If a ship has men on
it, only players who own the most guys on the
ship may move it.

The Countryside

If a guy gets to one of the red spaces in the
corners of the board, either in a ship or by
swimming, one more move will get him to the
safe countryside. See Fig 8.

If one of your swimmers as well as a dolphin
reaches the red space and goes ashore, the
dolphin remains on the red space. It may
be moved away only on the next turn. (Yours
or another player's.) Guys may move from
ship to ship, so if a ship is on the red
space, another can move to a neighboring
space and guys can jump onto that ship and
then ashore. See Fig 9.

End of game

The game ends if all players have brought their
live guys to security. The player with the most
live guys wins.

Short Game

Play until the fortress sinks. The player
with the most saved guys wins.